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UNI-verse Where is the Mars Polar Lander? Maybe you can locate it?
UNI-verse Where is the Mars Polar Lander? Maybe you can locate it? | Where is the Mars Polar Lander? Maybe you can locate it? |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Sunday, 18 May 2008 | |
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 Science DiscussionsThe Mars Polar Lander was lost on December 3, 1999, around 20:00 Universal Time (UT)--previous to it entering the atmosphere of Mars. It was attempting a landing in the Planum Australe (“the southern plain”), a southern polar region about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the Martian South Pole. The region is partially covered by a permanent icecap, which NASA hoped to explore with the Lander spacecraft. The MPL mission was part of the NASA Mars Surveyor ’98 (pdf file) program. It consisted of two separate spacecraft: the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander. Both were lost in their attempts to land on the surface of Mars. MSNBC, through its “Cosmic Log,” has an article entitled “Poring over Mars Pictures,” by author Alan Boyle. It is an interesting article that I thought you would be interested in reading, if you haven’t already seen it. Boyle states within the article: “The latest search for the lost lander doesn't have official status, said Ari Espinoza, a member of the Web team for MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE. That means spacecraft sleuths shouldn't expect NASA or the HiRISE team to follow up on any leads they come up with.” He continues, “But if there's strong evidence that the lander has actually been found, go ahead and post a link to the photos as a comment on the HiRISE team's blog - as well as at UnmannedSpaceflight.com, a discussion forum often frequented by Mars-savvy scientists.” Boyle adds, “If the unofficial search turns up something worth investigating more officially, "we'd be very happy with that," Espinoza told me. Just be sure to read NASA's guide to finding junk on Mars as well as the HiRISE blog comments. That will keep you from wasting your time on an analysis of bogus cosmic-ray hits or lower-resolution HiRISE imagery.” The University of Arizona’s HiRISE webpage “Looking For Mars Polar Lander” contains many of the images in this search for the Mars Polar Lander. You also will find this link under the Boyle article. The attempts to land on Mars continue. Please read on. |
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